Jamaica Tourism Minister Elected Chair of Inter-American Committee on Tourism

On the sidelines of the ongoing UNWTO General Assembly in Madrid, the Jamaica Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, attended the regular meeting of the Integral Council for Development (CIDI).

At this meeting Minister Bartlett was elected by acclamation as Chair of the Organization of America States (OAS) Inter-American Committee on Tourism (CITUR) today, November 30, 2021. CITUR is the most prestigious tourism body in the Americas which counts Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as Canada and the US in its membership.

In his acceptance statement, Jamaica Tourism Minister Bartlett called on the region “to not accept what was nor what is but what must be” to confront the issues of the pandemic to recover and thrive, thus, making the Americas a strong tourism sector providing more jobs and economic wellbeing for its people.

He encouraged Member States to work in partnership for the future and recovery of Tourism, based on innovation and investment in priority products and people for success. To this end, he congratulated his Vice Chairs from Ecuador and Paraguay and expressed his commitment to deepening the collaboration with all delegations to ensure that the region of the Americas survives and thrives in the post pandemic era and beyond.

The Organization of American States is the world’s oldest regional organization, dating back to the First International Conference of American States, held in Washington, D.C., from October 1889 to April 1890. That meeting approved the establishment of the International Union of American Republics, and the stage was set for the weaving of a web of provisions and institutions that came to be known as the inter-American system, the oldest international institutional system.

The OAS came into being in 1948 with the signing in Bogotá, Colombia, of the Charter of the OAS, which entered into force in December 1951. The Organization was established in order to achieve among its member states—as stipulated in Article 1 of the Charter “an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence.” Today, the OAS brings together all 35 independent states of the Americas and constitutes the main political, juridical, and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere. In addition, it has granted permanent observer status to 69 states, as well as to the European Union (EU).

The inter-American Committees are subsidiary organs of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI), including the CITUR committee on Tourism. The committees’ purpose is to lend continuity to the sectoral dialogue on partnership for development in a given sector, follow-up on the mandates issued at the ministerial level, and identify multilateral cooperation initiatives.

MEDIA CONTACT: Corporate Communications Division, Ministry of Tourism, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Telephone: 920-4924, Fax: 920-4944 – OR – Kingsley Roberts, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, Ministry of Tourism, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, ext.: 5990, Cell: (876) 505-6118, Fax: 920-4944